Skip to content

SDLXLIFF (Trados)

SDLXLIFF is Trados Studio’s proprietary variant of XLIFF 1.2. It contains the same core structure as standard XLIFF but adds SDL-specific namespaces and metadata.

File extensions

  • .sdlxliff

Key differences from standard XLIFF

FeatureStandard XLIFFSDLXLIFF
Source text<source><seg-source> (preferred) or <source>
Inline formatting<bpt> / <ept><g> tags wrapping content
Placeholders<ph>, <x/><x/> with SDL-specific attributes
Segment IDsSequential numbersUUIDs
Confirmation statusNot standard<sdl:seg-defs> with confirmation levels

What is parsed

  • Source text from <seg-source> (falls back to <source> if not present)
  • Target text from <target>
  • Inline tags: <g> (formatting groups), <x/> (standalone placeholders)
  • Source and target language
  • Empty/structural trans-units are skipped